Friday, February 21, 2014

The flu bug finally hit me. Wowza! It knocked me on my patootie. I haven't been this sick since who knows when. Totally zapped my energy. I finally returned to work on Thursday and found this sweet note waiting for me.

If there is one thing I know for sure, it's that my little ones at school always make me feel so LOVED. :)

While I was home, my amazing Valerie took over. She read "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". They made these art projects to go along with the books. I think they turned out fantastic.

{cranberry muffin}

{blueberry muffin}

{pigs and pancakes}

We added both to our bulletin board. I am loving it!

Today was our last day of reading the Laura Numeroff/Felicia Bond "If You Give" books. We decorated party hats with stickers to spell our names and also added some other fun stuff. It's hard to peel stickers from the paper so it was a great fine motor workout!

I love the concentration on their faces!

After reading "If You Give a Pig a Party", we partied! {Duh, of course!} The classes voted for their favorite food from the books. Donuts was the big winner! So, we had donuts and apple juice, wore our hats, blew party horns and bubbles.

As one of my morning sweeties stated, "It's gonna be off the hook!" and it was. :)

Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet up with some of my very good friends. I love spending time with my girlfriends! There is nothing better. :)

Friday, February 14, 2014

The little ones were SO excited to pass out their valentines. I even received some very special presents. :)

{at school}

{at home}

I feel loved. :)

Thank you, Paul!

We have been reading "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", "If You Give a Dog a Donut" and "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake". We used the muscles in our fingers and hands to make these cookies and cupcakes.

To make the cookies, we tore pieces of brown construction paper and glued them on a small paper plate. It's hard work tearing paper and squeezing glue bottles!

We made the cupcakes by gluing tissue paper on the bottom of the cupcake pattern and then topped in with a mixture of shaving cream and glue. We then added "sprinkles" and a cherry on top! We had some fine motor workouts this week!

For each book, we completed a creativity that required a lot of listening and following directions.

{"If You Give a Dog a Donut"}

{"If You Give a Cat a Cupcake"}

There is also Mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".

I love how these art projects turned out. Next week we are going to read "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and then vote on our favorite book. We will celebrate by reading "If You Give a Pig a Party" and eat the favorite snack that goes along with the book. It should be fun!

Valerie and I gave the book we read last week, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" as our valentine present. We were thrilled at how excited they were!

Instead of digging through their valentines they read their books. :) LOVE

I made this "I have Who has" shapes game to go with the "If You Give a….." theme. I use it at circle time to review shapes. It has all the characters from the books, including "Happy Valentines Day, Mouse!" by the same author. If you would like your own copy click HERE.

Monday, February 10, 2014

I have started a Laura Numeroff and Felica Bond theme in my classroom with books such as "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", "If You Give a Dog a Donut" and even "Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse". I made this milk and cookies color matching game to go along with my theme to use during circle/learning time. You could also use for individual, small groups, and centers, if desired.
Click HERE to download from Google Docs or on the pictures to download from TpT. Enjoy!

Friday, February 7, 2014

My momma always told me "be careful what you wish for". In my last post I wrote we had not had much snow and zero snow days so far this school year. Well, we got both this week. We only had school on Monday. The rest of the week was a wash. Enough….. I am ready to go back now!

My cold friend getting to use her snow blower. :)

I know I have said it before, but I have the most amazing SLP. A mom of one of our sweet friends asked about ideas to help him not touch everything when she takes him shopping.

Together with our OT they came up with this. I think it's pretty fabulous!

All the little cards have different textures to feel. They are on a ring, so you can rotate the cards and use as many or few as you want. My SLP went to Hobby Lobby and purchased everything and put it together. You rock, girl! I am SOOOO lucky to work in a building with such great people.

The one day we had school this week I started a "If You Give a …………" theme. Monday we read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond. Our library has student packs of class books. Each little learner got to follow along and "read" the book as a class. They took their job very seriously. I love this picture!

I also posted an "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" pack on TpT and TN. You can click on the store initials to check it out.

Since I was off work most of this week, I had time to put together a valentine pack to go with Mouse in Laura Numeroff's books.

Here are some of the activities:

I also have included a pattern to make Valentine Mouse in the pack.

You can find it on TpT and TN. I plan on using this pack next week with my sweeties.

I also have a "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose" retelling pack for another Valentine's Day option.

About Me

I teach 3 to 5 year olds in a blended Title One/Special Education classroom. I am blessed to have a job that I absolutely love. My paraprofessional, Valerie, is amazing. Together, we have so much fun teaching our preschool wonders!